Yenching Social Innovation Forum is Accepting Applications

Ever since the beginning of the reform and opening up period (1979), China's meteoric but uneven economic growth has led urban household per capita income to more than triple that in rural areas, giving it one of the highest urban-rural income ratios in the world. The term "urban-rural gap" refers to the geographical chasm that now permeates nearly every aspect of Chinese society, including education. In comparison with their urban counterparts, the schools attended by rural children and rural-urban migrant children suffer from a range of problems including a drought of high-quality teachers, outdated technology, and low graduation rates.

The Yenching Social Innovation Forum aims to provide a platform for young innovators from around the world to develop and share solutions to some of China's biggest social problems and complexities. It hopes to achieve this goal through leveraging the talent and resources of Beijing to create an educational environment to learn from leaders in the entrepreneurship, policy making, NGO, and venture capital sectors, among others.

This year's forum will be a three-day event hosted from November 24 to 26, comprised of workshops, site visits, and a competition, all pertaining to China's education gap. The selected participants will work together in small teams to brainstorm solutions to specific issues through an innovative project or start-up, which they ultimately will present in a pitch to a panel of judges at the competition.

The costs of round-trip transportation to Beijing, hotel accommodation, and meals for the duration of the program will be covered by the Organizing Committee of the Forum.

The Yenching Social Innovation Forum is open to all individuals aged 18 to 29. Please visit our websitehttp://www.ycasocialinnovation.org, then click on the "Applications" tab to access the application form and for information regarding judging criteria.

The application deadline isSeptember 18, 2016.